


Noise Ignored

by Ogid



Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, F/F, Gender or Sex Swap, Internalized Homophobia, Not Beta Read, Pre-Series, Young Adrian Dolan, Young Deran Cody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:20:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29927817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ogid/pseuds/Ogid
Summary: The worst thing a Cody could give you was their attention and lately Adrian was all Deran could focus on.
Relationships: Deran Cody/Adrian Dolan
Kudos: 1





	Noise Ignored

**Author's Note:**

> I just think the dynamics between smurf and deran would be very interesting if he was a girl. Can somebody please write a genderswap fic better than me.

Adrian might have been Deran's first real friend if Craig, her dumbass of a brother, didn't count. She was also probably the first person Deran had been able to connect to outside of the fucked up Cody family. Deran liked it. Liked that she had a window with a view outside of the name she could not escape. She loved how easy the echoes of Adrian now filtered into her life; making Deran feel good. Happy. Soft. Safe.

They were squished in together on Adrian's single bed but the slither of space existing where the sides of their bodies should be touching was too much. It burnt. They were staring up at the ceiling talking shit about the douchebags who had tried and failed to outsurf them earlier in the day. Neither of them were really paying attention to the conversation. That burning space between them was the only thing with any real volume in that moment and it was a siren's call for both of them.

Deran slowly shifted over; succumbing to the noise and closing the burning space between them. The movement was a signal. Adrian wouldn't initiate anything without a signal for a long time. She couldn't trust how Deran would react not since the last time they were this close when the Cody girl had freaked out on her, scared and brandishing slurs instead of kisses. They didn’t talk for a month after that.

Smurf had made a comment, quick and stinging like a slap, just before their fallout about how Deran was "spending an awfully lot of time with that Dolan girl" and how she should "bring that friend over sometime." 

The image of Adrian anywhere near Deran's mom was paralysing. It was a threat that Deran was experienced enough to recognise. She knew that her eyes weren't allowed to stray from family and that the Adrian window was a liability to Deran's position in the family. If Smurf could hear how loud her blood cells screamed for Adrian or smell how her flesh burnt in anticipation for any touch from her friend then there would be consequences.

The worst thing a Cody could give you was their attention and lately Adrian was all Deran could focus on. Her smile. Her laugh. Her body in the water. The eyes that were always looking right back at Deran's and the hands that inched towards her in the dark. Sometimes it was too much.

Sometimes Deran thought that Smurf was right. Deran needed to focus on the family, the money, the heists. She needed to be strong, hard and unbreachable because a vulnerable Cody woman was not safe. Julia was evidence enough of that. Smurf had said she wasn't family anymore and so, just like that, she wasn't. Deran could be next if she disappointed Smurf.

Deran needed to be hard but she fucking melted whenever Adrian so much as looked her way and there was nothing unbreachable about her when Adrian laced their fingers together and began to lean into Deran's space. She was all soft with no edges and no defences. Terrifying.

So Deran had attacked, pushed, ran. Adrian had been useless against her anger, unprepared for it and unwilling to attack back. That scared Deran too, how easily she lived up to her name. How easily she took from Adrian and how easily she could hurt her. So she left and had tried her hardest to stay gone.

It was for the best, Deran reasoned to herself. If her family found out just how little attraction Deran held for the opposite sex she'd be fucked. How quickly would her brothers turn on her? Quicker than they had for Julia? Something homophobic seemed to leave their mouths every 5 minutes. Smurf already hated Deran for being a girl. Maybe she'd rejoice in the loss of competition as sharing her sons' attention with anyone who had tits was not really something she handled well. Maybe she'd be disgusted and the love and protection of the Cody name would stop too. Deran didn't know how to be anything but her mother's daughter and it was too late for her to learn now.

Adrian was too much of a risk. Family was the only strength Deran had and a Cody women needed to be strong. Deran could play straight. She really could but sometimes it took too much out of Deran like when Smurf had put her on distraction duty.

"Flirt with the guard while your brothers handle things in the basement," Smurf had crooned while gripping Deran's shoulder, "And don't be afraid to stick out your chest a bit, baby."

Deran didn't feel old enough to seduce grown men and she would have rather been with her brothers, using her conveniently small size efficiently but what Smurf says goes and so Deran did as she was told. If the guard got a bit handsy before Deran knocked him the fuck out, did it really matter in the face of the ten grand split they each got and the "Well done my baby," that Smurf bestowed her. 

The oily disgust rising up her thigh just like she'd let that man's hand and the stains it left her on her body where she had let him squeeze were inconsequential in the face of all that wealth and her brothers having got out okay. Did it matter if Deran hadn't? The grease stains of the guards fingertips spread wider and it didn't seem to matter. Not to Smurf at least.

Deran was only worth giving a shit about when it benefited Smurf and when it placed Deran more under her control. Smurfs love was a toy that could be taken away anytime Deran stepped too far out of line. 

But the stains on her skin didn't benefit Smurf either and so Deran thought she'd chose not to notice when she went back to that window. 

Adrian Dolan did not make Deran clean but she did make her melt. The stains and the Cody name followed in turn as Deran lay next to her bestfriend with the burning space between them finally closed and the siren song numbed. 

Adrian began to turn into her, slow and careful, afraid to startle the wild beast that was Deran Cody's temperament. Adrian's fingers made contact with her body and began to glide up Deran's stomach. Their movement was soft and wanted. The fingers stopped just below her breasts and carefully brushed her skin. They were unsure. Adrian fit her face into the crook between Deran's shoulder and chin. She mumbled something against Deran's neck and the words seared soft with her lips. 

The world was silence but Deran's want rang loud throughout her veins. It would be so easy to turn and have Adrian's lips against her own.

Deran settled for resting her hand against Adrian's hip and getting to know the texture of the skin there instead.


End file.
